Posted by Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell’arte, whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of Pierre (Peter), via the suffix -ot. His character in contemporary popular culture — in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall — is that of the sad clown, often pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim and, more rarely, with a conical shape like a dunce’s cap. (Wikipedia)
Jean Antoine Watteau, Pierrot Content, ca. 1712
Oil on canvas. 35 x 31 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Pierrot content is one of a group of early works by Watteau in which the artist developed the theme of the fête galante that would be so highly appreciated during the 18th century. The phrase was used by the Académie in 1712 to describe the works presented by Watteau, for which a new term had to be coined. It has been suggested that precedents for scenes of this type includes Medieval scenes of gardens of love in which pairs of lovers are depicted courting and engaged in flirtation out of doors. This theme was taken up by Titian in the 16th century in Venice and he reinterpreted it in works such as the Concert Champêtre (Paris, Musée du Louvre). In addition, Watteau’s scenes of fêtes galantes were conditioned and influenced by four specific factors: the influence of Dutch and Flemish genre painting; depictions of theatrical scenes with figures from the commedia dell’arte; his designs of arabesques which brought him into contact with this type of subject matter; and 17th century Italian landscape painting. With regard to the above it should be noted that Watteau grew up in a Flemish city that had only been incorporated into France a few years before his birth, and his early works are influenced by Flemish painting. In addition, his training with Claude Gillot in Paris opened up the world of the theatre to Watteau, while Claude Audran, his other teacher, brought him into contact with scenes of an amorous type, as well as with 17th century Italian landscape and decorative painting of arabesques.
The title of the present canvas is derived from a print by Edme Jeaurat of 1728 that reproduces the painting with this title and which also includes valuable information on some elements that are no longer visible in the canvas due to the effects of time. To judge from the print the composition originally had a landscape format with a more extensive garden around the principal figures. This fact has led to the assumption that the present painting was cut down on both sides at an unknown date. Jeaurat’s print also includes two figures, identified as Mezzetin or Scaramouche and Harlequin, whose heads peer out of the trees at the scenes that they have encountered. They are just visible in the painting but this area of the canvas has darkened to a considerable degree due to the artist’s imperfect technique, to which he paid comparatively little attention.
Watteau located his scene in an exquisite corner of a garden, surrounded by the dense branches of a grove of trees in which we can make out a statue of Pan. The small, harmonious and colourful figures are richly dressed in what may be theatrical costumes. The amorous subject matter, which is charged with a subtle melancholy, involves Pierrot with two women, one with a guitar and the other with a fan, and two men, of whom the one on the left is dressed as Mezzetin. These figures, presented as self-absorbed and pensive, are enveloped in a magical atmosphere, captured by Watteau in a fleeting moment of pleasure, as we see in other works by the artist.
Pierrot content is one of the first scenes of this type that Watteau located in an outdoor setting. The painting has two obvious pentimenti in the figure of the woman with a fan, one correcting the position of her head, which was originally more to the right, and the other relating to the bottom of her dress, which was originally intended to spread out more towards Pierrot’s feet. The composition has been related to three others by the artist: Les Jaloux, a lost work known from a copy in the National Gallery of Melbourne; L’Arlequin jaloux, also lost but known from prints; and La partie quarrée in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. All three depict small, elegant figures wearing brilliant silks and satins in a garden of dense vegetation. Five drawings are known that relate to the present canvas: one in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen that depicts Pierrot’s frontal, symmetrical figure; another in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin with a sketch of the head and part of the bust of the figure seated on the left, who is also depicted in another drawing that repeats the same position of the body. The other three drawings are studies for the woman with the fan and the man seated at her feet.
The present painting was chosen by Lucian Freud as the background for a portrait of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, while it also inspired Freud in his monumental painting entitled Large Interior W. II.
Mar Borobia, Thyssen-Bornemisza website
Antoine Watteau: Gilles (or Pierrot) and Four Other Characters of the Commedia dell’arte, c. 1718.
Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Joseph Cornell: (1,2) “A Dressing Room for Gille,” 1939
Antoine Watteau: Italian Actors, c. 1719.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Carl Spitzweg (German) – Ash Wednesday, 1855
Oil on panel, 21 x 14 cm
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.
“Our painting from 1860 by German romanticist painter Carl Spitzweg is titled ‘Ash Wednesday’. We see a downcast, sad carnival clown seated in the corner of a cell, his head bent, arms crossed, and his face is in the shadows. Carnival is over. A clown normally triggers laughing, joking, excess, exuberance, but here he is depicted as exactly the opposite. A clown normally attracts attention and wants to be the centre of attention, but not in this painting. And that is exactly what Lent is about: not to be the centre of attention.
That is what Jesus is teaching us in our Gospel reading today: ‘Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice’. Jesus teaches us to be less concerned with how others may see us and so that we can enter into a period of introspection and quiet reflection. That is now where the clown finds himself.
The painting’s background tells the rest of the story: it is simple, stripped back. There are no paintings on the wall or any distractions – just the natural light, coming in through the window, brightens the picture. The cell almost functions as a stripped back place of retreat.
It is a good painting to illustrate what the start of Lent is about: reflecting upon our usual ways of acting, doing some fasting, praying a little more and giving alms. It is a time to shed our clothes of excess, shed our masks, and enter a spiritual cell of quietness, peace and rest….”
Source: Independent Catholic News
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi 1864 – 1901 Schloß Malrome, Clown, um 1886/87, Erworben 1932, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin,
photo: Daniel Rabinovich
Edgar Degas – Arlequin et Colombine, 1884. Pastel on paper, 42.8 x 42.8 cm. Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
Paul Cézanne: Mardi gras (Pierrot and Harlequin), 1888
Pushkin Museum, Moscow
Georges Seurat, Pierrot and Colombine, conté crayon on paper, 1888
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Seduction (Clown and Clowness after the Show), 1899, lithograph
Pablo Picasso, In the Agile Hare, 1905
Oil on canvas – Dimensions: 99.1cm (39.0 in) × 100.3cm (39.5 in)
Metropolitan Museum of Art..
Picasso is Harlequin, the woman to his right is Germaine (Laure Gargallo) and the man behind them is Frédéric Gérard, says Father Frédé, owner of Agile Rabbit.
Pablo Picasso, “Family of Saltimbanques” 1905
Oil on canvas, 83 x 90 in., Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
© 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Family of Saltimbanques (French: Famille de saltimbanques) is a 1905 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. The work depicts six saltimbanques, a kind of itinerant circus performer, in a desolate landscape. It is considered the masterpiece of Picasso’s Rose Period, sometimes called his circus period. The painting is housed in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Family of Saltimbanques was painted during a period from late 1904 to early 1906 when Picasso was exploring themes about the saltimbanque. During this period, Picasso frequently attended the Cirque Médrano in Montmartre and was inspired by a group of performers there. In the circus performers, Picasso found a connection, as like himself, many of them were from Spain and experienced a transitory lifestyle that he had also experienced as a young man.
Family of Saltimbanques is a huge painting measuring 7 ft x 7.5 ft. It was an ambitious work for a young, impoverished artist. The painting consists of a group of Saltimbanques, who stand together but appear to be disconnected as they do not look at one another.[2] Picasso depicted himself in this composition as the harlequin dressed in a diamond-patterned costume. The figures in the group appear isolated as if lost in their own thoughts. They glance towards a woman who is sitting alone. The harlequin is shown to be reaching towards a child who is standing behind him.
John Richardson and other art historians have considered that the dreamy atmosphere of the painting and the expressionless appearances of the figures were influenced by Picasso’s use of opium, a substance that was regularly used by the tenants of the Bateau-Lavoir during this period. In the first volume of John Richardson’s 1991 biography A Life of Picasso, he stated that the artist smoked opium several times a week between 1904 and 1908.
Critics have suggested that Family of Saltimbanques is a covert group portrait of Picasso and his social circle, symbolized as poor, independent and isolated. The painting was removed from the Spanish salon at the IX Biennale of Venice in 1910, because it was considered inappropriate by the organization.
The figures in the painting have been described as representations of specific identities. While the harlequin resembles Picasso, the small acrobat resembles Picasso’s friend, the poet Max Jacob. The deep-browed acrobat is considered to be a representation of André Salmon and the large jester is said to be a representation of Guillaume Apollinaire. It was alongside these friends that Picasso would frequent the Cirque Medrano.[7] In his book Picasso and Apollinaire: The Persistence of Memory, Peter Read notes that preparatory drawings for the work revealed that the large jester was actually a representation of El Tio Pepe Don José, the head of a circus troupe. He continues by opining that the figures in the painting are allegorical and represent Picasso and his social circle facing a new century without a clear path to guide them.
Harold B. Plum notes that the figures in the painting are placed from left to right in a receding order of height, with the tallest figure being Picasso himself. He describes the painting as an illustration of the artist’s personal transition. “In the painting, he was depicting a metamorphosis from late childhood to adulthood, in life and art.”
E.A. Carmean has drawn a connection between the figures in the painting and the circumstances of Picasso’s own personal life. At the time that Picasso was working on this painting he was living with his partner Fernande Olivier. She had brought a ten-year-old girl home from an orphanage and then returned her. Carmean noted that in the painting, the harlequin, who represents Picasso, is reaching out for the girl who is standing behind his back. On the right side of the painting is an isolated woman, representing Olivier, who is sitting with one hand on her shoulder and the other in her lap as if holding a missing baby. Carmean considers that this image is a metaphor for this emotional incident in Picasso’s life.
Pablo Picasso, Acrobat and young Harlequin. 1905
Gouache on cardboard
Private collection.
Gustav-Adolf Mossa, “Pierrot s’en va”, 1906
Huile sur toile, 80 x 65 cm
Musée des beaux arts de Nice
Heinrich Campendonk (German-Dutch, 1889-1957)
Harlequin and Columbine, ca 1913, oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum
Harlequin and Columbine are the characters from the commedia dell’arte. This type of theatrical performance started in Europe in the 1400s and became popular again in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Harlequin and Columbine were traditionally dancers in a ballet, but here Campendonk depicted them as a seated couple rather than performers. It is possible they are portraits of Campendonk himself and his wife, Adda Deichmann. They married around the time this work was painted.” – gallery label.
Albert Bloch – The Green Domino , 1913
Vanity Fair, February 1914
Pablo Picasso – Pierrot and Harlequin, 1918. Graphite, with touches of erasing, on cream wove paper, 26.5 × 19.5 cm. (10 7/16 × 7 11/16 in.). @ Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
Juan Gris, “Arlequin con Guitarra” 1919
Elks party. Glen Echo, Maryland in c1920
Medium: 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
Call Number/Physical Location: LC-F8- 9162 [P&P]
Source Collection: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress)
Le baiser d’Arlequin, 1920
Gino Severini – Arlecchino che suona il violino, 1922. Olio su tela, 36 3/8 x 25 5/8 in. (92,5 x 65,2 cm).
Christie’s, Londra
André Derain (1880-1954) ~~ Arlequin et Pierrot, (1924)
Huile sur toile
H. 175 ; L. 175 cm
Grand Palais (Musée de l’Orangerie) Paris.
This famous painting at the Musée de l’Orangerie was an order André Derain received from Paul Guillaume. Derain chose to depict two characters from the Italian theatre known as the Commedia dell’Arte: Harlequin in his colourful chequered costume and bicorn hat, and Pierrot in his white frock with ruff, head covered by a black calotte. Amongst the painters, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) had already taken an interest in this theme of saltimbanques that had been popular since the 16th century.
Nonetheless, Derain created an original work: Harlequin and Pierrot, with one knee raised and both playing the guitar, appear against a neutral background in a never-ending dance like marionettes or puppets. Their gazes do not meet and they have serious expressions on their faces. Therefore the painting is suffused with a certain melancholy quality. Derain prepared for this work by making several preliminary drawings. He also paid close attention to the small still life in the bottom right of the painting that anchors the composition. The figure of Pierrot was finally recognised as a portrait of Paul Guillaume.
This painting appeared several times during the lifetime of its sponsor. It can be seen in a photograph of his flat on Avenue de Messine. Derain alluded to this painting in the background of a portrait of Domenica Guillaume that he painted between 1928-1929 and that is conserved at the Musée de l’Orangerie.
Source: From the “Musée de l’Orangerie” website
Edward Hopper, Soir Bleu
Oil on canvas, 1914
Painted in 1914, “Soir Bleu” is a unique and ambitious work by Edward Hopper that diverges from his typical style of sparsely populated scenes. This monumental painting captures a poignant moment in a Parisian café, filled with an eclectic group of characters that evoke themes of isolation and introspection.
What’s the Story Behind “Soir Bleu”?
In “Soir Bleu,” Hopper depicts a melancholic evening scene featuring seven individuals, including a sad clown, a military man, a bearded bohemian, a sex worker, and a well-dressed couple. The painting, set in a café reminiscent of those Hopper frequented during his Parisian travels, explores the alienation felt by each character despite their close physical proximity. The central figure, a Pierrot clown, embodies Hopper’s own feelings of disillusionment and professional angst during this period of his career.
Hidden Details:
Hopper’s use of color and composition in “Soir Bleu” is particularly striking. The deep blue tones of the evening sky and the stark white of the clown’s costume create a dramatic contrast that draws the viewer’s eye. The painting is divided by a vertical post, symbolizing the separation between the characters and highlighting their individual isolation. The meticulous detail in the figures’ expressions and postures adds layers of emotional depth and narrative to the scene.
Why Is It Important?
“Soir Bleu” is significant in Hopper’s body of work as it marks a pivotal point in his artistic development. Unlike his later, more recognized pieces focused on American themes, this painting reflects the influence of French café and street culture. Initially met with lukewarm reactions, “Soir Bleu” was rolled up and stored away, only to be appreciated much later as a critical piece in understanding Hopper’s exploration of modern life’s complexities.
Where Can You See It?
“Soir Bleu” is part of the collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The painting’s rich narrative and emotional intensity make it a highlight for visitors seeking to delve into the depths of Hopper’s artistic psyche.
Annie Leibovitz Photography
Heinrich Campendonk (German, 1889-1957)
“Sitzender Harlekin” (Sitting Harlequin) ,1922.
Woodcut with hand-coloring watercolor ,gouache and mettalic paint on paper ;
37,7 x 29 cm.
Museum Kurhaus Kleve
Heinrich Campendonk – Harlekin c.1925 MUSA
G e o r g e s – R o u a u l t, Il pagliaccio, 1907
Olio e tempera su pannello, 57,2 × 50,8 cm
@Detroit Institute of Arts
Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill (70.179)
© Georges Rouault by SIAE 2015
Paul Klee, Feuer Clown I (Fire Clown), 1921
Pablo Picasso
Harlequin with a Mirror
1923
Oil on canvas. 100 x 81 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no. 709 (1979.87)
Initially intended as a self-portrait, Harlequin with a Mirror combines three characters from the circus and the Commedia dell’arte that held a strong fascination for Picasso, and with which he identified: the two-cornered hat is a clear reference to Harlequin, the clothes are those of an acrobat, while Pierrot’s face, turned into a mask, conceals the artist’s identity.
The solid figure of Harlequin, whose body takes up most of the composition, is evidence of a new artistic idiom inspired by the classical approach of the great masters, which Picasso had adopted after his visit to Italy in 1917. Although his experience in Italy prompted a return to classical principles, he eschewed literal interpretation in favour of the free approach acquired through his previous Cubist experience.
Europe’s interwar art scene was dominated by a return to classical ideas. From the mistrust of the values that had hitherto governed Western art emerged a new realistic approach to the world which aroused an anti-romantic reaction and fierce hostility towards the formalism of the avant-gardes. The widespread “return to order” awakened a keenly critical spirit and a pressing need to return to the real object and to reinstate the mimetic standards and durability of classical painting — albeit without forsaking modern artistic themes. This return to the past sprang from the avant-garde itself with the firm intention of re-establishing lasting values following the chaos and destruction inflicted by war.
Picasso’s trip to Italy with Cocteau in 1917 marked the start of a new artistic language inspired by the classical tradition of Pompeian paintings and those of Raphael, Michelangelo and Ingres. However, Picasso’s classicism is deceptive: he uses Antiquity (in the same way that he had previously used African masks) to reinterpret traditional models without shunning the Cubist experience. Cubism had provided him with the key to handling the various elements of a picture differently and enabled him to tamper with the laws of perspective and combine various viewpoints in the same work.
Harlequin with a Mirror is representative of this period and was defined by Douglas Cooper as resembling an image out of Pompeii. In the past it was generally associated with a set of seated harlequins painted by the artist during the early months of 1923, for which the Spanish painter Jacinto Salvadó posed in a costume Cocteau had given Picasso. However, a careful study of this group of works shows that the Harlequin in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza differs considerably from the rest. It is not even a proper harlequin but rather combines the presence of three characters from the world of the circus and the commedia dell’arte which Picasso found so appealing: the acrobat’s attire transports us to the world of saltimbanques and circus performers; the triangular hat is a clear reference to Harlequin; and the mask into which Picasso converts his face is Pierrot, Colombine’s spurned suitor who wallows in his melancholy, gazing at his image in the mirror, an attribute of deception and vanitas.
As Tomàs Llorens recently revealed, Picasso initially approached the present painting as a self-portrait, since, as X-radiography shows, “the face that was initially a self-portrait of the painter takes on the impersonality of the mask in the final appearance of the work.” It should not be forgotten that in many aspects Picasso regarded Harlequin’s temperament as similar to his own, and throughout his life he portrayed himself in this guise on many occasions, generally for some sentimental reason. Some authors such as William Rubin and Pierre Daix have precisely associated Harlequin with a Mirror with an ambitious work from Picasso’s classical period entitled The Pipes of Pan and with Picasso’s frustrated love affair with the American Sara Murphy in Cap d’Antibes during the summer of 1923. The numerous preparatory drawings for this painting generally feature four figures: a couple formed by a young man and woman; Cupid (or Love) crowning the girl (depicted as Venus) with a garland of flowers; and Pan playing the music of love on his pipes. According to the aforementioned authors, the young Cupid (Picasso) who holds out the mirror to Venus (Sara) and who is disguised as the acrobat in some of the versions is portrayed alone and transformed into the Harlequin in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Harlequin with a Mirror and The Pipes of Pan were the crowning achievements of Picasso’s classicist period, but also brought it to a close. In the autumn of 1923 the artist concentrated on a series of still lifes executed in a style that has been described as “curvilinear” Cubism, which gradually evolved into his Surrealist period.
Paloma Alarcó
Source: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Website
Pablo Picasso – Seated Harlequin, 1923. Oil on canvas, 130.2 × 97.1 cm. @ Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland
Heinrich CAMPENDONK
Pierrot mit Schlange (Pierrot with Snake)
1923
Kunstmuseum Krefeld (Germany)
“Campendonk began his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in his native Krefeld, before gradually becoming involved in avant-garde circles. In 1911, at the invitation of Franz Marc, he moved to the Bavarian village of Sindelsdorf. Little by little, he joined a group of artists composed of Marc, Macke, Kandinsky and Jawlensky, becoming a member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), and he participated in Der Blaue Reiter’s first exhibition at the end of 1911 and then in the group exhibitions that followed. There, Campendonk discovered Cubism and Orphism. The complex pictorial space of 20 Minuten vor 1 Uhr consists of geometric forms and planes superimposed upon one another, from which some figurative elements can be made out. This breakdown of forms is inspired by the revolutionary handling of space first seen in Cubism, while the bright colour palette is rooted in Orphism. Moreover, while Campendonk increasingly focused on frescos and stained glass work, his paintings were largely characterised by their transparency, layering and radiance.
The artist readily adapted this innovative colour palette and this art of composition to serve his own thematic concerns, leading him to develop a style of his own. Peter Selz wrote about Campendonk’s sources of inspiration as follows: “When the Rhenish painter Heinrich Campendonk came to live in Bavaria, he saw peasant votive pictures painted under glass. Fascinated by this naïve forceful expression, he tried to re-create -not imitate- the spirit, technique and subject matter of folk art. He settled among the Bavarian peasants and lived on their farms for many years, first in Sindelsdorf and then, after being discharged from the army in 1916, in Seeshaupt, on lake Starnberg. […] Campendonk’s subject matter consists of the most elementary objects of country life -farmers and their wives, their cattle and fowl- but this ordinary world and reassembles it into a magic, dreamlike place.” (P. Selz, German Expressionist Painting, Berkeley, 1973, p. 308). The seated man holding a flower in his hand, in the foreground of 20 Minuten vor 1 Uhr, symbolises one of the painter’s concerns, that of a perfect symbiosis between man and nature. Indeed, he shared with Franz Marc the concept of a utopian world in an infinite future, where man, beast and nature would cohabit in harmony in a spirit of mutual respect.”
Arthur Degner, “Perrot”, no date
Oil on wood, 68×66 cm.
Degner studied at the Königsberg Art Academy. In 1909 he exhibited in Berlin in the gallery of Paul Cassirer, at whose suggestion he had traveled to Paris in 1910. In addition to Cassirer, he found support from Lovis Corinth and Max Liebermann. During WWI he served in the medical service.
In 1919 he became a board member of the Free Secession. In 1920 he was appointed to the Königsberg Academy. From 1931 to 1933 he was chairman of the Berlin Secession. After the National Socialists came to power, he was banned from working and exhibiting. Nevertheless, the Villa Romana Prize of the German Association of Artists enabled him to study in Florence in 1936 and in 1937 he became a member of the Association of Berlin Artists. In 1937, as part of the “Degenerate Art ” campaign, all of his works were confiscated from public collections and destroyed. In 1943, when his studio with 300 paintings was destroyed, he moved to Silesia.
Columbine and Harlequin by professor Otto Poertzel circa 1925
Carved Ivory and Cold-Painted Bronze
André Derain
Arlequin à la guitare
1924
huile sur toile
H. 190 ; L. 97 cm avec cadre H. 210 ; L. 120 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée de l’Orangerie) / Hervé Lewandowski
Here Derain has painted a life-size Harlequin, a character from the Italian Commedia dell’arte, characterised by his colourful chequered costume and bicorn hat. He is represented against a very neutral background of green and ochre. The Spanish painter Salvado, who worked for Derain and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) posed for the character, as he did for the two figures in another of Derain’s paintings, Arlequin et Pierrot [Harlequin and Pierrot], ordered by Paul Guillaume and also conserved at the Musée de l’Orangerie.
The young man is holding a guitar resting on his left leg. He seems to be listening to the sound of the chords he is playing. His gaze turned away from the viewer and his emotionless expression also impart a certain melancholy to the painting. The very timeless landscape free of any landmarks distances the Harlequin from reality and gives him a dreamy appearance. The tension between his body that is ready to dance and the instrument he would like to play is a creative discovery of Derain’s. The impression of strangeness is accentuated at last by the two effects of bright light on the collar and the bright socks. Starting in 1931 this painting illustrated a book dedicated to Derain. Paul Guillaume must have liked this theme of saltimbanques, or travelling circus performers, as he acquired works by Picasso on this theme between 1905 and 1906, works he later sold, then the two Derain paintings from the Musée de l’Orangerie, conserved by Domenica.
Source: From the “Musée de l’Orangerie” website
S a l v a d o r – D a l í, Arlequim, 1926
óleo sobre tela
Museu Nacional Centro de Arte Rainha Sofia, em Madri
Paul Klee, The Fool, 1927
Paul Klee, Fool in a Trance 1929
Paul Klee, Prickle the Clown (Stachel der Clown), 1931
MOMA, New York
Raoul Dufy, “El Arlequín en Venecia”, 1938.
Georges Rouault – Clown de profil, 1938-39.
Oil on paper laid down on canvas, 80 x 58 cm. (31 1/2 x 22 13/16 in.)
Bonhams, London
Santa and two clowns visiting a child in the hospital during the 1950s.
Frantisek Tichy (Czech, 1896–1961)
Arlequin, 1952
Technique mixte (crayons, pastel et gouache) sur papier,
26 x 20,8 cm
Thomas Hoepker
German, b. 1936
“A Clown at a Lunch Counter”, 1963
Reno, Nevada
German photographer Thomas Hoepker took some of the most iconic images of the 20th Century. He never studied photography, he “just did it” and was influenced by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt
The themes of the mannequin, circus and variety show are an important and numerous part of the artist’s distinctive work, which easily seeps into the artist’s significant graphics
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) – Harlequin with Mask (Tête d’Arlequin masque), 1971
(Ink and coloured chalks on paper)
Private collection.